


Ringing

by AHeartForStories



Series: AHeartForStories' Whumptober 2020 [25]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III Whump, Hiccup Whump, Hurt Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Ringing, Tinnitus, Whump, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:20:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27196390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AHeartForStories/pseuds/AHeartForStories
Summary: Written for Whumptober Day 25. Set after RttE. Hiccup can't sleep. He really wants to, but something is stopping him from getting the rest that he needs.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Toothless
Series: AHeartForStories' Whumptober 2020 [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949440
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	Ringing

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Whumptober prompt: "Ringing"  
> Based on my personal experience with tinnitus. Sadly, unlike Hiccup, I do not have a dragon.  
> Might be my shortest so far.
> 
> Constructive criticism is appreciated!  
> Enjoy!

In the middle of the night, hours after the sun has set and still a few more before it will rise again, Hiccup lies awake in bed. He's tossing and turning, rolling from one side to the next.

He's tired, but he can't sleep.

Lying on his right side, he sighs in agitation and comes to lie on his left again, grabbing the covers and pulling them up to his neck. His eyes are heavy and all he wants to do is curl up and doze off, hoping that the warmth of his covers may lull him there, but he's restless. He's been restless all week, ever since he's made a most discomforting discovery.

There is a sound that he hears at night. It's not as obvious during the day, but at night, when all is quiet, he hears it the most and then it is deafening.

It sounds like a whining, one similar to what Toothless makes whenever he charges a plasma blast or speeds through the sky in a dive. Except this one is much, much higher in tone and it is constant instead of building.

It's been there for at least a week, or that's when he first realized it was there. It plagues him, keeps him from his sleep until the wee hours of the night, when pure exhaustion finally takes him and makes him slumber.

He knows Toothless can't hear it. The Night Fury noticed something is making his Rider irritable, but when he'd complained to him about the noise, Toothless clearly had no idea what he was talking about. If it came from an outside source, a Night Fury would hear it.

Toothless is with him at this hour, but he's sound asleep on his rock and has no idea Hiccup is still up. Hiccup isn't about to wake him for this either, he can't help.

Grabbing his pillow and pressing it over his two ears, all it does it make the sound grow louder and his frustration with it.

He wants it gone. He doesn't know what it is, just that he's had enough of it and that he wants it gone.

It sounds like the kind of ringing you'd hear after an explosion, but this one doesn't stop and it's louder in one ear than it is in the other.

Tomorrow, he'll see Gothi. Maybe there's something she can do or something she can give. Or maybe she can at least tell him what these are and what causes them so that he can go look for a solution on his own.

But for now, he's fated to suffer through them. He'll have to listen to it whine and whine and whine until exhaustion comes and takes him away again. Until that moment comes, he'll just have to wait.


End file.
